FIA EVALUATION OF NITRITE AND NITRATE CONTENTS OF LIVER PATES

A comparative study on the nitrite and nitrate contents of 15 liver pa te brands, in a total of 45 samples (three batches per brand) is prese nted. The study was conducted on two different kind of pates: pork liv er pates and fowl liver pates. For the simultaneous determination of n itrite and nitrate, an automated flow injection system with spectropho tometric detection was used. The manifold was based on the splitting o f the flow after injection and subsequent confluence of the flow befor e reaching the detector, allowing the reduction of nitrate to nitrite in part of the sample plug on an on-line copper cadmium reductor colum n. Spectrophotometric determination was made after a diazotization cou pling reaction. The levels of nitrites and nitrates ranged from 1.07 m g NaNO2 kg(-1) +/- 0.43 to 15.9 mg NaNO2 kg(-1) +/- 5.2 and from 24.5 mg NaNO3 kg(-1) +/- 2.7 to 207 mg NaNO3 kg(-1) +/- 14, respectively. T he levels of concentration of these constituents were below the allowa ble limits. A significant dispersion in the results was observed betwe en different brands and within some of the brands. (C) 1998 Elsevier S cience Ltd. All rights reserved.